THE exact starting point of the National Hunt season ‘proper’ is often debated and never resolved; it can be early, late or never depending on your inclination, but the previous season’s Cheltenham Grade 1 winners starting to emerge after summer is as good an opening as any.

The first of them appeared in the PWC Champion Chase at Gowran last Saturday, Envoi Allen, though his performance built on a legend that he might be better known as Enigmatic Allen.

After 11 races unbeaten in bumpers and novice races, he has been something of an anti-hero for punters since, reliably unreliable, winning four times including three Grade 1s but never putting back to back wins together.

Part of that is the air getting thinner in open company, another part his physical issues (has had a breathing operation and suffered a chip joint at the 2021 Punchestown Festival).

However, his inconsistency is such that it is hard to figure out what he actually wants.

Certainly Down Royal seems to suit him well as he has won at their big meeting five times, all when having his first start of the season, so the decision to come to Gowran a month before his typical starting point was a strange one, though connections may have taken the view that he would need his first run more now that he is a nine-year-old.

Mixed signals

He has gone very fresh in the past though not so here and whether he is best going right or left-handed is also open to question as he can hang either way.

One way of figuring him out of late has been the market, however. He went into last year’s Ladbrokes Champion Chase under something of a cloud but was backed from 10/1 in the morning into 7/2, and he was similarly strong ahead of his Ryanair Chase win at this year’s Cheltenham Festival, backed from 12/1 in the morning into 13/2 starting price.

The betting, at least on the show, was nothing like as keen on him last Saturday, as he drifted from 4/5 to 13/8 and it called him just right. Settled just off the two leaders, he made errors at two fences down the back and looked like getting left behind across the top of the track before closing up a little early in the straight.

From there he kept on at the one pace, inclined to go right at the final two obstacles, a return that goes down as no better than satisfactory.

Henry de Bromhead twice brought him back to peak last season and may do so again though you are on your own with figuring out whether he will do so next time – no change there then!

Tremendous placing

The form of this race also seems suspect. Easy Game might be the best placed high-150s horse of recent times to win the race, but his long-standing profile is of a horse who wants decent ground; per Timeform’s time-based going, all bar two of his wins prior to this came with good in the description and his two wins on their soft came in April and June so hardly testing surfaces.

Paul Townend, and connections of some other winners on the card, did say that the ground was not that bad at Gowran but even so the form seems questionable and the runner-up Gentlemansgame may not be one to get carried away with.

He has potential over fences after just two chase starts but the form of his previous win is dubious as the runner-up I Am Maximus looked unsuited by leading and going left-handed.

THIS year’s Cheveley Park looked a sub-par running but Donnacha O’Brien won’t be too concerned as Porta Fortuna gave him a fifth career Group 1 win. She is a likeable and consistent sort but perhaps the best filly in the race was the runner-up, Pearls And Rubies.

While Porta Fortuna was well-positioned pressing the pace, Pearls And Rubies was dropped out in last and while travelling strongly to the two-furlong pole, had a difficult task in passing the whole field from there.

She very nearly managed it, fastest of all in the field in each of the last three furlongs and the only runner on the entire card to dip below 34 seconds for the final three furlongs, and looks like one with more to give this backend.

The pace she showed over six furlongs here was surprising given she ran in the Chesham but while she went close at Ascot, I wonder if that race, just 13 days on from her Navan debut, took something out of her.

Ballydoyle bounce-back

Certainly she hit a mid-season lull afterwards, though there were other excuses (racing on slow ground perhaps not ideal while she was lame after the Debutante) but we have seen before that Aidan O’Brien can bring such types back and a string of defeats at two need not preclude one of his fillies from winning Group 1s the following year.

The other takeaway from the Cheveley Park was the solidity it gave to the Moyglare form. Both the winner and the runner-up came from that race, while Brilliant is another to give it a boost since and it was worth remembering how far Fallen Angel and Vespertilio came clear of the rest in the final two furlongs.

Their time compared well with the National Stakes won by Henry Longfellow later on the card, a truly-run race after the Amo Racing pacemaker went hard, and both the winner and runner-up had other things to recommend them too, Fallen Angel impressing with her attitude and Vespertilio with the amount of ground she made up from rear. Both should be taken very seriously if running again this year.

OPERA Singer was the second Irish-trained juvenile filly to win a Group 1 over the weekend with a devastating effort in the Prix Marcel Boussac, going forward with the other favourite Darnation but beating that one off early in the straight and still having plenty left to pull clear in the finish.

Both Aidan O’Brien and Ryan Moore were quick to point to the Justify influence after that race and while both have a stallion to sell, their comments about the sire’s progeny enjoying a trip and being ridden forward look on the money.

Per Horse Race Base, O’Brien has had 20 individual runners by Justify so far with 10 of them winning a total of 16 races. Of those 16 winners, 12 were ridden on or very close to the pace with basically all of them proving best over the furthest trip they raced at.

It was reasonable to wonder if O’Brien might suffer a dip after the death of Galileo but Coolmore/Ballydoyle look to have found another top sire, their two top juveniles by him despite his oldest crop being only three, and they seem to have figured out how to ride them based on pedigree too.

They might well rue the one exception to the rule, however.

Statuette managed to win a strong-looking Airle Stud Stakes over a sharp six furlongs from mid-division, the likes of Zarinsk and Matilda Picotte in behind, but has been unable to make the track since and was announced as retired from racing in August. She looks one that got away.